Dadoboy

mick66 wrote:I think you misread the question.
S/he was specifically asking about keeping items in the cart past midnight (end of sale) and then quickly adding something from the next days sale before checking out and if that would qualify as a single $5 shipping charge.

I think you misread the answer.
If you place in your cart a Plus item (that normally stays on a few days), you have until that sale is over or is out of stock to keep the 5 dollar shipping. If you place in your cart anything on regular woot (that expires at midnight) it would not be available the next day to add on to.
On Woot-Off items would have a 5 dollar shipping on each item, because once the item is sold out / expired - you are not able to add to it to combine shipping.

mick66

CanyonRun

oh.... and on the subject of BOXES and the # of them i may receive at any given time...

please know i don't give a CRAP how many i receive... as i don't mind opening BOXES... and... I'm a 'recycler' (just call me Mr. Green...;-p), so they're always disposed of properly...

don't be fooled here...the less-BOX-idea is not for us, it's merely an Operational-Cost-Saving/Efficiency-Mechanism for amazon... just as the CART SYSTEM is now a long-time-proven generator of increased sales/profits.... except it won't be for w00t!...

unless...

the w00t! team ends up completely abandoning the original business model that made w00t! the ground-breaking company it always was...

driscj

Nobody enjoys a quick change which, on first glance, will mean nothing but added shipping costs in exchange for a slightly different online shopping experience.

I have to say before the $5/day shipping, I very rarely bought anything on Woot. Once it went in, I was much more likely to buy a number of things (Woot off or not). I could have some shipped to the parents or the boyfriend. I could go back and order another one (or two) of something without much thought.

As more sites take off shipping, or set minimum amounts for free shipping, this seems an unfortunate business model.

Dadoboy

mick66 wrote:This makes very little sense. The $5 for all orders in a day thing has only been going on for a brief time. Before that you were perfectly happy to buy hundreds of items that all came with $5 shipping on each item. If it's not a woot off, why would you need to make multiple orders in a day? So how has anything really changed?

For me it was the deep discounts... Now everything is a few cents cheaper than the mothership... Even the woot monkeys went up from 1.99 to 4.99.

mick66

Dadoboy wrote:I think you misread the answer.
If you place in your cart a Plus item (that normally stays on a few days), you have until that sale is over or is out of stock to keep the 5 dollar shipping. If you place in your cart anything on regular woot (that expires at midnight) it would not be available the next day to add on to.
On Woot-Off items would have a 5 dollar shipping on each item, because once the item is sold out / expired - you are not able to add to it to combine shipping.

You are correct. I mis-read that because the OP said "that hasn't hit the deadline at midnight" when there is no deadline at midnight for plus items.

mick66

Dadoboy wrote:For me it was the deep discounts... Now everything is a few cents cheaper than the mothership... Even the woot monkeys went up from 1.99 to 4.99.

Do you not realize that the only thing this really affects is woot offs? Other than those, you can shop at your leisure everyday and put everything in your cart and pay at one time with one shipping charge.

sdownin

mick66 wrote:Do you not realize that the only thing this really affects is woot offs? Other than those, you can shop at your leisure everyday and put everything in your cart and pay at one time with one shipping charge.

Not if you're buying one of the daily deals and the daily deal sells out before you load up your shopping cart and check out.

mrfishwhiskers

mick66 wrote:Do you not realize that the only thing this really affects is woot offs? Other than those, you can shop at your leisure everyday and put everything in your cart and pay at one time with one shipping charge.

I disagree. Items with favorable deals or in a common size sell out very quickly. Therefore you need to order ASAP or it will sell out. So you pay $5 there. Then new woot plus items come up the same day and you again want to buy before it sells out, another $5. Later that day your spouse orders somethings without knowing you ordered something, $5.

wallyennis

I spotted some toolboxes and placed two of them in my cart while scoping out other stuff. Then Mortimer pops up with a message asking why I have not completed my order. Also that the toolboxes are not reserved until the order is completed. To me this implied the toolboxes were near sellout. So I interrupted my trolling and completed the order.
Then I resumed looking at other items and ordered them.

(Eight hours later the toolboxes are available, so my impression of the monkey's "warning" was wrong.) (Come to think of it: Don't monkeys live along the Amazon?)

Prediction: Once the financials show a negative slope maybe some sensible marketing direction will appear. If Woot is not already too far down by then.

Tell the Amazon crowd to go home and leave y'all alone. You were a much better outfit without their interference!!!!!

ThunderThighs

wallyennis wrote:I spotted some toolboxes and placed two of them in my cart while scoping out other stuff. Then Mortimer pops up with a message asking why I have not completed my order. Also that the toolboxes are not reserved until the order is completed. To me this implied the toolboxes were near sellout. So I interrupted my trolling and completed the order.
Then I resumed looking at other items and ordered them.

(Eight hours later the toolboxes are available, so my impression of the monkey's "warning" was wrong.) (Come to think of it: Don't monkeys live along the Amazon?)

Prediction: Once the financials show a negative slope maybe some sensible marketing direction will appear. If Woot is not already too far down by then.

Tell the Amazon crowd to go home and leave y'all alone. You were a much better outfit without their interference!!!!!

Excellent feedback on the messaging. That message pops up after 60 seconds (i think that's right) just to remind you that it's not yours until the sale is completed. I can see where you might think it was warning you about a possible sell out though. I've already passed this on.

whatsamattaU

Fun reading the comments.
1. Even if fewer boxes is for woot's benefit, I sincerely do want fewer boxes. I probably am too much of a recycler for my own good, and I also don't have to worry about packages coming on different days sitting by the door that can be taken. I can worry just about being there one day to get the packages inside.
2. I do agree however, with most of the above that it will make people adjust to the woot-offs and drive some away, now that people have gotten used to the all-day shipping buying frenzy option. I didn't care as much, because I'm buying more woot plus type items now than regular 1 a day items (which I thought would never happen) or woot-offs (that I don't have the time to stick around much for like in the past).
3. I'm not sure I'll buy less, but I can't see myself buying more with the cart. I can see the disadvantages as noted above (e.g., if you pay with 2 different cards like business and personal, want to ship to 2 different shipping addresses, etc.), but maybe woot comes up with something creative that isn't too complicated. That's over my head.
4. I'll be curious the next/first time a one day sale item comes up from the pre-cart era as a post-cart era item, if they will change the price (i.e., lower it a bit) to accommodate the shipping change, or as suggested above, would they adjust the woot-off pricing. I'm not optimistic it will happen, but I'm not ready to automatically think woot won't listen somewhat at least to our concerns. Of course, I'm been accused of being naive more than a few times.
5. Sorry for the wrong guess earlier on how shirt woot's shipping plays into this new system.

Councelor

I can say, with absolute certainty about losing the $5 per day to ship:

1) This will largely dissuade me from buying at wootoffs.
2) This will substantially decrease my woot purchases. I oft would purchase just after midnight to see what was changing at the 6am changes to get them at free shipping.
3) This is just another nail in woot's coffin and uniqueness since taken over by the corporate beast.
4) It's not like ordering them all in one cart is going to determine that only one shipment is made. It is almost an office joke how many boxes (and how big boxes) come to ship an item from both big brother (Amazon) and little brother (Woot).

whatsamattaU

Councelor wrote:I can say, with absolute certainty about losing the $5 per day to ship:

1) This will largely dissuade me from buying at wootoffs.
2) This will substantially decrease my woot purchases. I oft would purchase just after midnight to see what was changing at the 6am changes to get them at free shipping.
3) This is just another nail in woot's coffin and uniqueness since taken over by the corporate beast.
4) It's not like ordering them all in one cart is going to determine that only one shipment is made. It is almost an office joke how many boxes (and how big boxes) come to ship an item from both big brother (Amazon) and little brother (Woot).

Good point/question. I may go back to my previous orders and see where the boxes started out at--I wonder what the split is. If there's one good thing that's come out of Amazon taking in Woot though, it's that the packages get delivered faster than before the takeover. Even if they had cut my last shipment from 10 boxes to 4 or 5, I consider that a win (environment, ease, etc.)

morninglark

Unlike some, I've only been a Wooster since 2012 and did not realize free shipping was a temporary thing. I've looked over my purchases and I don't have a lot of multiple items, the ones that are we're purchased because I'd unlocked free shipping. I have been waiting to buy some woot plus items. . Now I don't know. I buy a lot more from woot than Amazon. On sites with carts, I leave things in the cart and then review before checking out and usually take items out before check out.

Knowing my own habits, I won't be buying as much, especially during woot-offs.

One problem with the items selling out is an issue. I usually check woot early in the am before I go to work and sometimes but not always check it in the evening for the woot plus sales. So I can put something in the cart in the morning and then add in the evening fine.

But I can see a problem. And a question: will I be able to see if any items in my cart is sold out before I buy? I will be very unhappy if I end up paying shipping charges for an item I only brought because it was cheap and I was already paying shipping for another item. I need to know if everything in my cart is available before I buy anything that costs less than $5.00.

burrnini

andreaserben wrote:Bah-humbug.
Wooters have come to love this system. Instead of the shopping cart which frankly at this point complicates things since items can sell out or the 'deadline' to buy might be reached, you guys should rather have optimized the logistics for Wooters and put a 'virtual shopping cart' out there to hold the orders before you submit it to Amazon's logistics. Just hold the further order processing until e.g. Midnight - and problem solved - less boxes, less overhead - and maintaining the benefits of $5 for impulse buyers/multiple purchase shoppers.
Essentially this would have the effect on logistics/shipping cost and everybody would be happy instead of this solution that is rather a step back factually for most shoppers no matter how you might phrase it.

Or let me be even more innovative - how about if everybody could set their own 'Shipping deadline' time that would cause new shipping cost?

+infinity billion

I'm amazed at how long it took to mention this. I'm guessing it may not have occurred to the woot folk either.

mjonczak

I'm not going to be following WooT-Offs as often now with the new "Cart". I'm not going to pay $15 shipping for three different WooT-Off purchases. I used to really get excited by a WooT-Off; now, not so much. Well, it was a great run while it lasted.

"When I die, I want to go
as my grandfather did:
quietly, peacefully, in his sleep.
Not like his passengers."

brian8255

mschauber

pseudogourmet98 wrote:Mostly a wine Wooter. Liked that I could get multiple deals for $5 shipping during woot-offs but will not be able to with the cart thing so this is disappointing. First the added sales tax, now $5 shipping per order, what's next??

Same here. This cart crap already screwed me today. I had cut my order in half for Ardent this morning because of the tax and was going to buy the Geyser tonight having already paid shipping, but NOOOOO Woot had to go eff things up... Another nail in the Woot coffin.

--Hey you, out there in the cold; Getting lonely, getting old; Can you feel me? - Pink Floyd/Roger Waters"First get your facts, then you can distort them at your leisure." Mark Twain"If you think education is expensive, try ignorance." Derek Bokq1
My CT--

LarryLars

wootbot wrote:How does this affect Woot-Offs? Well, you'll have to stay on your toes. Stuff is going to sell out and sell out quickly, so you'll want to check out as soon as you can. Yes, that means you'll pay for shipping more than once if you end up buying more than one item, ...

Once again woot you took a win-win opportunity and turned it into a win-lose (woot-customer) reality. Maybe you could revert to the $5 all day shipping during woot-offs?

wootbot wrote:... but the truth is we sell stuff at such stupid low prices in the Woot-Off that you're still getting a good deal.

The writer must be new here at woot, no? Seriously, the "stupid low prices" are far and few. It's not the old days anymore.

smartheart

As Woot and Amazon are increasingly converging anyway....here's an idea...give Amazon Prime members a break on Woot shipping....either free or discounted off what is Woot shipping under the new policies.

Not only will this increase sales but it helps the mothership and Woot cross-promote one another.

"Three be the things I shall never attain: Envy, content, and sufficient champagne."
--D. Parker

nfurlong

jmalone wrote:Agreed, most of my buys here woot-off or not are impulse buys, and this will almost certainly cost me more or result in me buying less. I often jump on something I see early in the morning that I think will likely sell out, then return later in the day when i have time to check out Woot! Plus sales only because I have unlocked free shipping.

While Woot! considers their Woot!-Off prices 'crazy-low' enough to still be a deal, which I feel is debatable, I can't even count the number of times I have seen loyal Wooters use the "Sure Woot! is only $2 cheaper than someone else on the internet, but I already unlocked free shipping" to justify a purchase at more post-mothership takover (less classic Woot! crazy low) high prices.

JMalone speaks my mind exactly, as I am sure s/he speaks for many other wooters. a house landed on Woot for pretending that the cart move was done for any reason but an *attempt* to raise profits. It's the "we're raising prices to save you money" line and I'm not buying it. Literally.
Like JM, I'm mostly a wine wooter. I pass up most wine woots because most are not bargains at all. In the old days when Woot was a lean independent company, they actually had some bargains. Then the prices crept up, the 4-pack became the 3-pack for the same price, the 16 oz. became the 12 oz. for the same price, tax was (in my case) doubled, now shipping is added per order instead of per day. Nickel & diming your customer is a time-honored trip to the scrap heap of companies, unless you're a monopoly. Better pray for a monopoly Amaz ... I mean Woot. It's the only way your squeeze-the-customer biz strategy will win.

nfurlong

I'm amazed at how long it took to mention this. I'm guessing it may not have occurred to the woot folk either.

(emphasis mine). AMen! The post you quoted demos the strength in multiple minds working on a solution. With what, about 2 dozen people, you came up with an infinitely better solution than the one Woot implemented. That's not at all surprising. I used to work at Amazon and can tell you their corp culture is one person comes up with an idea. They either kill it or build it. If the latter, they ship it and let the customers test it.

If the brand loyalty Woot built up (prior to becoming Amazon) is strong enough, they'll retain enough customers to survive this snub. But why subject us to these repeated test in the first place? Do they really want to be a Harvard Business Review case study that badly?

whatsamattaU

I don't know if woot could have announced the new cart idea starting in a week to get people ready, but woot could certainly offer a mulligan for everyone getting confused/frustrated today with their order with the cart.

Looking at Alexa #'s, woot's recent peak was near the end of 2011, rallied some last fall, but has been trending down it looks like since the holidays.
http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/woot.comIf woot were to falter, I'd more likely go to Amazon or give up one day a deal sites. I come here as much to learn as to shop. The other one deal a day sites I'm not comfortable with yet when I've tried them, and aren't designed for advice that I can tell.

Most of the complaints/suggestions I can see are reasonable (especially going back to all day $5 shipping for woot-offs), but I guess I'm the exception that the Cart doesn't faze me as much as wondering if this will in the end continue their declining web presence. Ah, the good old days,...
http://web.archive.org/web/20090730084555/http://www.woot.com/

werdwerdus

Suggestion: Have a user-controlled option to combine all orders for the next X hours/days, have all separate orders during that timeframe paid for without shipping, then at the end of the time period have shipping figured and paid for in one payment. EDIT: Amazon already does this with one-click orders. The time period is 30 minutes IIRC.

Or more simple would be for all orders chosen with standard shipping, have shipments sent out only on certain days of the week and combine all orders during each shipping period.

Whatever the specifics are, the gist is to combine orders behind the scenes for the benefit of decrease shipping costs for the customer and the shipper (Woot), fewer total shipments, increase impulse buys/on-the-fence buys (= increase sales for Woot).

Or... just leave the cart as is, and have unlimited $5 shipping during woot-offs.

mtn3pitt

morninglark wrote:But I can see a problem. And a question: will I be able to see if any items in my cart is sold out before I buy? I will be very unhappy if I end up paying shipping charges for an item I only brought because it was cheap and I was already paying shipping for another item. I need to know if everything in my cart is available before I buy anything that costs less than $5.00.

See "Quirk #1" on the original post:

1. Stuff in your cart isn't really yours until you check out. The deal can still sell out or expire (and move to the sad "Stuff You Missed" section of your cart). So if you want to keep the ravenous Woot mob from yanking that item out from underneath you, don't wait too long to finish your order. And if the I WANT ONE button is pulsing, run like hell for the checkout!

Stuff that sells out before you check out will show up in a different section, so double check your cart before you pay.

--

I know it's been discussed thoroughly but this change is definitely huge. I'm definitely going to be another long time wooter who will be cutting back (even more) from buying (except maybe shirts...). Shipping going from $5 a day to $10, $15, $20, $25, $30, etc makes woot not as attractive as heading over the Amazon and using my Prime shipping. Yes, Amazon still gets my money, but at least then I'll actually save money on shipping (and not spend too much more since prices here have been creeping up). I'm sad about this change. It's quite disappointing.

If Prime membership would transfer over to woot then that would greatly improve my thoughts on purchasing here again, but as Gatby said, it's probably not going to happen anytime soon. We'll see how much my purchases slow down.

Edit

Also, this:

mrfishwhiskers wrote:Proposed Solution: Simply don't ship my purchases until the following day. I'm perfectly fine waiting an extra day and woot getting the benefit of batching up all my orders for the day into as few of boxes as possible. If I need it faster, I'll choose an upgraded shipping option.

tigerfish313

Well, of course I'm also going to buy less in the woot-offs, since unlocked shipping was always a huge determining factor for me, but I actually have something to suggest for the cart...

Maybe look into a way to add the "[blank] days left, or until sold out" to the info in the cart, that way we can tell at a glance how much time is left on all the different items in our carts without having to visit each individual page again.

amackii

Um...all the blah blah blah....quirks...shopping...I want one he wants one...years saved...new ground old dirt...back pages..run like hell if pulsing...stuff missed...all in one...Woot offs to cost more to ship same old...ugh, not one lousy word about how much the stupid new mini or maxi carts will cost, or when the sale on them will end.

nanmac

Dang it! I LOVED the $5 shipping on everything bought in 24 hours. I sometimes bought things I might not have, otherwise. The cart is an ok idea but I do not like giving up the $5 shipping especially during woot-offs. On a positive note, I really like the new Tools & Garden store.

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